Wolff sympathises with Hamilton: 'He just had those problems'

After claiming a one-two finish at the Las Vegas GP, Toto Wolff hoped Mercedes could continue positively in Qatar. The Austrian was happy with the team's results in Sprint Qualifying.

George Russell will start the Sprint from the first row of the grid, after he finished in second position only behind Lando Norris at the Losail International Circuit. Given how the only free practice session turned out for Mercedes, team principal Toto Wolff was satisfied with that result.

Following the session, Wolff said they were not perfect in FP1, where Russell and Hamilton finished in P8 and P10 respectively. "But now we're always among the fastest. That's pleasing," he explained to Sky Sports Germany.

He continued: "We were a second behind [in FP1] and simply never had the tires in the right window. We also had the wrong setup. But good decisions were made between the two sessions. Norris was really strong," Wolff added, but underlined that Russell, who finished in P2, was also "fully there" in contention.

On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton finished in seventh place in SQ3, but Wolff believes they understand what held back the Briton. "With Lewis we can see that he just has so much understeer in his car. We have to try to improve that for Saturday. It was a setup and tyre temperature thing. But it was also a bit unfortunate with the traffic. You just have to get the temperature right on the first lap before the fast lap. He wasn't always right there," the Austrian said about the seven-time world champion's result.

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